Social Media Best Practices

Many of the social media accounts associated with Idaho State are managed by faculty, staff or students throughout the University.  We’ve created a list of best practices to help those who manage the social media accounts of their unit.  

• Assign responsibility of social media accounts to appropriate faculty or staff. Use the college or department email as an administrator to all accounts to allow for a smooth transfer of responsibility when needed. Each unit should have at least two administrators assigned to each account.   
• Be selective in choosing the social media channel to fit your message and your target audience.  Audiences may be prospective students, current students, parents, industry partners, faculty and staff, or other institutions. You don’t need to have an account on a platform if the platform doesn't fit your message, audience or ability to create content. 
• Align social media strategies and content with the University’s core values, strategic objectives, and institutional mission. 
• Plan ahead and use content calendars or content publishing apps (like Hootsuite) to plan, create and schedule your content.   
• Learn more about Hootsuite. 
• Hootsuite Tutorial 
• Properly manage confidential information about students and employees. Follow FERPA and HIPAA guidelines. 
• Use the Federal Social Media Accessibility Toolkit to ensure accessibility for all users. For example, use alt-text for photos and add captions to videos. 
• Use analytics and tracking tools to evaluate the effectiveness of content to strategically plan future content. 
• Use brief, visual posts with a call to action to increase effectiveness. 
  • A gallery of images available in  Idaho State’s Photo Archives  
  • Use good images that clearly connect with your content and aren’t blurry. 
  • Don’t zoom in when taking photos; try to step closer to make sure the image quality isn’t reduced. 
  • Shoot in landscape mode for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Shoot in portrait mode for Instagram. 
  • Taking Effective Photos for Your Facebook Page 
  • How to Take Good Instagram Photos 
• Only use logos and identifying graphics that are approved by the Office of Marketing and Communications.   
• Keep posts on brand with the correct university colors, fonts and graphics. 
• Be sure to proofread all content before posting. 
• Share content and link with other University social media accounts. Network with organizations that align with your unit by following and sharing content. 
  • Before automatically sharing content that mentions or tags your unit, make sure the post is a positive and clear representation.  If a post is unclear but potentially interesting, consider reaching out to the author to ask if they’ll share more about their experiences. 
• Steer clear of content that may not be a positive reflection on the department or the University, such as memes, political advocacy, religious or non-secular holidays or issues, selling products or services not associated with the University, and sharing personal opinions. 
• Be active and post frequently to avoid stagnant/dormant accounts which can lead to a loss of audience. 
• Engage with your audience by monitoring and responding to comments; use your channels to begin engaging conversations with your audiences.  
• Be prepared to handle negative messages and, along with deleting inappropriate comments, consider blocking users who have repeated negative engagement.